Global Radio chief executive Stephen Miron has criticised "Radio One Direction" and claimed Radio 3 copies his company's station Classic FM.

The boss of the Global Network, which includes Capital, Heart and Classic FM, said the commercial group gave the BBC "a good run for their money".

But he accused the BBC of aping some of Global's output, specifically Radio 3 which has overhauled its schedule over the last 18 months.

"If you look at the changing programmes Radio 3 has done against Classic, it is pretty overt that it has looked at the successes that Classic has had and adjusted its programming structure," Miron told the Radio Festival in Salford on Tuesday.

"They probably won't see it like that, but it's not about sales, it's about fact. There are areas [where] they will encroach on commercial territory. We will give them, and we do give them, a good run for their money."

Miron said: "Radio 1 is squarely up against Capital, Radio 2 is right up against Heart, Radio 3 against Classic."

He added that Global, whose £70m purchase of GMG Radio is being considered by the Competition Commission having been cleared on plurality issues by culture secretary Maria Miller, is looking to expand further.

Miron said the group had considered making a bid for Channel 5 before it was bought by Richard Desmond for just over £100m in 2010.

He defended the purchase of GMG Radio, owner of the Smooth Radio network, against criticism from rivals Bauer and UTV that it would lead to excessive control of the commercial radio market.

Asked about the criticism from Bauer, owner of Kiss and Magic, Miron dubbed it the "€3bn conglomerate German company Bauer".

"The secretary of state decided there were no issues regarding media plurality," said Miron.

"You have to take a wider look at what is going on. Commercial radio is a 3% medium in advertising revenues, there is 97% going on around us.

"The truth is consolidation needs to take place for the future of the business."

On whether Global had killed local radio with the rollout of its Capital and Heart brands, axing heritage local brands across the country, Miron said: "The world has changed. In 2006, Facebook launched in the UK, Twitter launched, in 2006 regional newspaper advertising revenue was £2.5bn. Today it's £1bn, the game has moved on.

"It's fine to look back on the halcyon days, what life was like. You have to keep evolving. I would challenge the convention we have killed local radio. We just deliver local radio differently."

• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".

• To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook.